Spa in a jar, comfort in a compact? Rosie Green on the ten genius products that smell as good as they look
From blushers delicately perfumed with rose to tinted moisturisers packed with aroma, make-up infused with mood-boosting scent is a life enhancer.
Make-up artists are wise to this. For Caroline Barnes, whose A-list clients (from Kylie to Cheryl Cole) have seriously stress-inducing schedules, using a product that will make them look better and feel better is a no-brainer. "I adore the effect of rose-scented products," says Caroline. "Instantly they make everyone breathe deeply and drop their shoulders. Clients feel clean, calm and relaxed."
Now chemists and brand creators toil hard to transport wearers of their glosses, tints and balms to olfactory heaven. Why? They never underestimate the shot pleasure derived from a delicious smell. Directly linked to the areas of our brain governing instinct, memory and emotion, smell can have a dynamic effect on our moods and shift us from one state of mind to another.
A product which contains expensive, natural scent, also marks itself out as a truly indulgent purchase. By Terry creator Terry de Gunzberg has always railed against the "standardisation of luxury products" and the heavenly perfume of her beautiful skincare/make-up hybrids only elevate her brand further above the stock artificial scents that dominate some other brands. Aerin Lauder also realised scent was of paramount importance to her eponymous range AERIN. "I kept on saying that I wanted the products to smell really pretty and feminine, so we created a floral infusion with peony, rose and meadow foam." And breathe…
TEN GENIUS PRODUCTS THAT SMELL GREAT TOO
1 Chanel Joues Contraste, £31. Make-up artist Mary Greenwell’s favourite blusher has a great texture, brilliant hues and an "incredible rose smell".
2 AERIN Rose Lip Conditioner, £20. A low-key shot of colour and delicious fresh-bouquet-of-blooms smell.
3 Bobbi Brown Extra Repair Foundation, £36, contains geranium, bitter orange and chamomile which remind customers of "luxury spa treatments", according to George Pelosi, one of Bobbi’s senior make-up artists.
4 Nars Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturiser, £26, goes for a similar effect with 100 per cent naturally-derived peony, violet and rose fragrance.
5 Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream Skin Protectant, £25. Conditions and adds shine anywhere from lids to lips and smells comfortingly medicinal.
6 By Terry Or De Rose Huile Absolue, £90. This instantly illuminating, skin-perfecting miracle has rose extracts and precious oils so it smells as good as it looks.
7 Guerlain Meteorites Perles Illuminating Powder, £35.50. Make-up artist Emma Day loves its violet fragrance – so popular they went on to make a scent of it.
8 Lancôme lipsticks, £21. Fragranced with the brand's specially-cultivated rose de Lancôme, the scent has become part of Lancôme's DNA.
9 Caroline Barnes loves YSL mascaras, from £23, which smell of rose too. “I often waft it under client's noses before I apply it."
10 Jurlique Rose Silk Finishing Powder is rose-scented, and according to Barnes "totally translucent and utterly divine".
But make-up wasn't always so fragrant. Our ancestors' noses suffered for their beauty regimes: the Romans had to make do with stinky animal fats in their foundation, Elizabethans painted their faces with pungent egg whites and the crushed carmine beetles worn by Cleopatra surely weren't nostril-friendly...